Make the most of a romantic night out in Paris by following it with a great, late breakfast. And, as our selection shows, Parisians today are as likely to plump for an Anglo-American-style brunch as strong coffee and croissants
Frenchie to Go
Young chef Gregory Marchand cooked in London with Jamie Oliver and then in New York with Danny Meyer before opening his hit bistro, Frenchie, after returning to Paris several years ago. He has been putting his Anglo-American experience on display with this excellent new cafe and takeaway. Made with smoked bacon produced from the Tamworth pork raised by cult meat-master Tim Wilson in North Yorkshire, the bacon sandwich here has become a cult classic. It's served on an English muffin, and you can add an egg or cheddar cheese. He also does seriously good sticky buns and maple-syrup-and-bacon scones, plus excellent coffee.
Breakfast about €15. 9 rue du Nil, 2nd, frenchietogo.com. Open Mon-Fri 8.30am-4.30pm, Sat-Sun 9.30am-5.30pm
Le Bal Café
Created on the site of a 1920s dance hall, this exhibition space has a great cafe, run by chefs Anna Trattles and Alice Quillet, who are English and Anglo-French respectively and serve one of the best weekend brunches in the city, including a great fry-up, kippers, kedgeree, pancakes and porridge. The baked goods, especially the scones, are superb, and the serious barista does some of the best coffee in town.
Brunch about €25. 6 Impasse de la Défense, 18th arrondissement, le-bal.fr. Open Wed-Fri 10am-2.30pm, Saturday 11am-3pm, Sunday 11am-4pm
Bob's Bake Shop
Health-conscious New Yorker Marc Grossman threw over a Wall Street job 15 years ago and moved to Paris, where he has created a quartet of excellent healthy-eating addresses. His latest is this edible homage to New York City in a former railroad warehouse. What pulls crowds are the are made-on-the-premises New York-style bagels in flavours including onion, poppyseed and pumpernickel, and also Polish bialy rolls. Eat them plain, toasted or as part of a sandwich filled with cream cheese, organic Scottish salmon, avocado, sprouts and more. Great coffee, too.
Breakfast about €15. Halle Pajol, 12 Esplanade Nathalie Sarraute, 18th, bobsfoodetc.com. Open daily from 8am
Holybelly
Occupying a narrow, tiled space that was once a Moroccan restaurant near Canal Saint Martin, this is now the most popular new breakfast destination in Paris. Getting a table will often require a wait, even a long one, since they don't take reservations. But it's worth it because this "Melbourne-style cafe" does the best breakfasts in Paris, with dishes like black-rice porridge made with coconut milk and garnished with fromage blanc and seasonal fruit, or fried eggs and pancakes with bacon, Bourbon butter and maple syrup. The excellent coffee comes from the Brulerie de Belleville, a top-notch local roaster.
Breakfast about €20. 19 rue Lucien Sampaix, 10th, holybe.ly.com Open Thurs-Mon 9am-6pm (Sat and Sun from 10am)
Claus
Bavarian-born former fashion PR Claus Estermann decided to share his countrymen's love of a hearty fruhstuck when he opened this coolly chic boutique-cum-breakfast cafe in a side street near Les Halles. On the ground floor there's a carefully curated selection of biscuits, mueslis, jams and other condiments, and in the green-carpeted dining room upstairs, you settle at a white table for a good feed. The German breakfast offers Saint-Nectaire cheese, hard-boiled egg, ham, fruit compote, bread and beverages. Unlike many other breakfast places, this one keeps real breakfast hours, too.
Breakfast about €25. 14 rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1st, clausparis.com. Open daily from 8am Mon-Fri, 9.30am weekends
Colorova Patisserie
Run by Guillaume Gil, who formerly worked at the swanky Hotel Plaza Athénée, this arty Left Bank pastry shop and tea room with Marimekko wallpaper pulls a stylish crowd. Simple French breakfasts comprise bread, pastries and good coffee during the week but, on Saturday and Sunday, there are freshly made fruit juices, homemade cakes and fruit compote in the lighter brunch menu. The full feed includes dishes like pumpkin soup with chestnut shavings and eggs Benedict. Booking is strongly advised at the weekend.
Set brunches from €28. 47 rue de l'Abbé Grégoire, 6th, +33 1 45 44 67 56, facebook.com/Orlova2013. Open Tues-Sun 9am-7pm
Eggs & Co
This rustic hen-house-sized cafe in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés has become a hit by freeing the French talent for cooking eggs from the corset of traditional cameo roles. Here it's all-eggs, all-the-time, with a menu that runs to well-executed basics like scrambled, boiled and omelettes and more sophisticated dishes like oeufs en cocotte (eggs baked in ramekins with cream, mushrooms, and other garnishes).
Breakfast about €24. 11 rue Bernard Palissy, 6th, eggsandco.fr. Open daily 10am-6pm
Le Cinq
The best grand-hotel breakfast buffet in Paris is probably the lavish morning spread at the Hotel Le Bristol, but for a different but still luxurious start to the day, consider the superb Japanese breakfast in the light-filled dining room of the Four Seasons George V Hotel. This 10-part meal is expensive, but it's beautifully prepared and you probably won't want any other food than a late light supper after breakfasting on miso soup with tofu, pickled vegetables, nori seaweed, salted fish, Japanese omelette, steamed rice, spinach with sesame seeds, fried tofu, salmon sashimi, daikon turnips with soy sauce and green tea.
Breakfast €57. 31 Avenue George V, 8th, +33 1 49 52 71 54, restaurant-lecinq.com. Open daily 7am-10.30amrant-
Le 68 Guy Martin
Designed by star New York designer Peter Marino, this chic dining room in the newly renovated Guerlain boutique on the Champs-Elysées has emerged as one of the most fashionable breakfast venues for the city's fashion and media mavens. This serene, well-lit restaurant is run by chef Guy Martin of Le Grand Véfour, and the morning meal runs to freshly pressed juice, beautifully made bread and viennoiserie - pains au chocolat, pains aux raisins and croissants, plus farmhouse yoghurt or cheese, eggs to order, and tea or coffee.
€25. 68 Avenue des ChampsElysées, 8th, +33 1 45 62 54 10, le68guymartin.com Open daily 10am-11.30am for breakfast
Twinkie Breakfasts
Tipping its hat at the great American all-day breakfast, this snug little place in the trendy 10th assumes you'll have a nice lie-in: it doesn't open until 10am. From then on, though, a variety of themed prix-fixe brunch menus - American, English, Greek and more - are served all day. The Scandinavian one comes with a Nordic riff on eggs Benedict (with smoked salmon), and there's also a gluten-free version.
€22. 167 rue Saint-Denis, 10th, twinkie-breakfasts.com. Open daily 10am-5pm
Paris based food-and-travel writer Alexander Lobrano is the author of Hungry for Paris and Hungry for France. He blogs at alexanderlobrano.com
Frenchie to Go, Paris
